Revisiting the Past

The day I entered into Std. fifth was the day nightmares started visiting me quite often in the form of historical figures and history lessons. To mull over it now, I actually realize that it was majorly because I was fed with pre-conceived notions of history being dull, boring and a mugging up lesson which would fetch me no marks at all. But today I can say that I fell in love with this subject.

It’s all a matter of perception in the end, the way you feel about something and students by nature feel negative about everything that is related to studies. History has a dull outlook, but it is not boring at all, especially once you start imagining those times and how the events would have happened in the very same order, by visiting these historical places, which adds the charm and makes you fall in love with those subjects.

A history teacher of mine told me once that the best way to learn history is to become a part of it in your imagination, by visiting those very places where that event would have occurred and then going back to your textbooks helps in relating to what you have seen with what you are reading in the book.

Parents and schools should make it a point to take their students on a yearly or quarterly basis, to visit some historical monumental place, or to visit a museum with historical artefacts that narrate the stories of past. Also, these days digital media has made so much progress in the present days that schools could order for a CD of a historical movie, which are close representations of the historical events and show them on big screens. As we know, that visual media has a greater impact on children that any other forms of media and so students would be interested in taking a closer look at that particular happening and would make it a point to read more about it.

There is nothing in this world that we hate, it’s all in the mind, if we master the mind to do as we want it to then no subject would be dreadful for us. Kids are like clay, one has to mould it and shape it in ways that would make the kid look perfect, behave appropriately and act pleasingly in ways that suit the requirements of this society where we reside.

Author Bio: Minu Aravind is a self-motivated writer and blogger with an ability to develop unique content, is associated with India’s largest international school in Mohali. She is a strong advocate of high-grade education, and focuses to develop blogs and articles in the field of education, parenting, and child development and so on.

Importance of Home-Work

Learning and knowledge are two weapons that are essential in carving a niche for oneself in any place around the world. Students especially are not so fond of going to school, because of innumerable reasons that do not end at all, be it for the fear of teachers, other kids bullying them, or for not completing the home-work on time. Home-work, ever since its conception in the history of teaching and learning has been despised by the students all over the world.

It is an important part of the curriculum for both the students and the teachers to get acquainted with the term home-work. The main aim of homework is to inculcate good work ethics in the students, allows them to revise whatever has been taught for the day and provides them with information that helps them to understand what is being taught next day in the class.

Kids are usually finicky with their studies, as there are certain subjects that they love to the core and certain other subjects, which make them feel sick. But, since the subjects are a part of the syllabus they do not have much choice but to cope with it. What parents and teachers could do is to try and make the subject a little interesting in ways that will ignite the student’s attention to that subject and student will like studying and working for it.

Parents especially are the ones who spend most time with their children at home, and are also the ones who make their kids finish their homework on time. Sometimes parent themselves find it difficult to cope up with the changing syllabus of the schools and feel frustrated at the disability of being unable to help their children with their school work.

In such case, parents and teachers should have regular meetings to discuss the progress of the child as well as, teachers Should provide with tips to parents about how they could be of use to them Children in making them learn a lesson and to finish their lagging work in class. Also, internet these days have come up with so many techniques where parents could subject themselves to online classes to teach their wards in ways that are innovative and interesting for children to understand, grasp and at the same time makes it useful enough for going about with their daily tasks of school. After all, homework is also, not that bad a monster of the lives as it is usually portrayed by kids.

Out-dated Traditional Learning

Why is that we always stereotype, A tradition to be out-dated and obsolete part of our lives, this is quite a thought provoking question, because what we think today, is transferred to our preceding generations. Traditional ways of learning have still not lost its charm, even after technology taking over everything in the world, there are children who love the smell of new hardbound text books, they still love to cover their books with brown paper and feel very happy in class to read up a lesson in the text book in class.

Textbook give the feel of learning something to every child, the process of learning is somewhat incomplete without referring to the school text books. Maths is subject, where old tricks of calculation makes the work easier, one may have been equipped with the latest digital calculator, but in the end when the calculator repeats the error command for a calculation, even the most technology savvy person has no option but to perform the entire calculation manually on paper to cross check his or her error.

India is the country, where great and learned men came up with several educational Theories and formulas and that also without the help of technology. I’m not against the use of technology, but I want to point out the fact that if the simplest things could be done in the most simplest ways then why is it that we wish to complicate it further by using gadgets that don’t need the required attention for that work.

For instance, according to the recent researches conducted, Indian students are known to perform brilliantly compared to students abroad. It is not because they are using the most latest technologies, or they are using the latest Ipad’s or IPhone’s, it is simply because they are using their brains. Even after being the most powerful country and nuclear equipped in the world, why are most of the Indians getting job offers from companies in America and why are American kids not faring well enough grades in their schools.

India may have once been the land of snake charmers and elephant riders, but India was never the land of fools, we may use the most traditional forms of teaching and learning in schools but we are proud that are students are the one’s placed in the top most institutions around the world and they are looked forward to as an example of perfect students by other teachers, parents and even the President of America.

How to restore Inner Peace

With So much pollution, population, competition and perfection to go through, we often tend to forget that we are humans and our body needs ample rest to restore its working capabilities. Research has shown that studies related to brain-based learning indicates that learning is a very physiological process, which involves the functioning of the entire mind and body. 

For the brain to function at its maximum potential the body's emotions must be under constant check and so should the other physiological needs that must be met. It is often noticed that learning something in an empty stomach, one is simply unable to feel any form of coherence with what the person is reading to what is he understanding. This is because of lack of food, which causes anxiety and stress in the person making it difficult for the person to learn anything.

Here is where, yoga enters into our lives and gives kids the necessary tools to free themselves of any stress, any form of anxiety, or "murkiness" in the brain. Yoga comes across as a powerful weapon for both the students and teachers who could use it during short breaks throughout the day, with a view to refresh and revitalize the body and the mind of students.

Yoga is a form of healing exercise, which has been passed down from generation to generation, is convenient as it does not require any equipment neither does it require a lot of space to be performed. Students performing the asana can stand, sit, or they can even lie down on the floor of the classroom. While performing yoga it requires deep breathing, to allow the mind to visualize the desired outcomes.

Schools are finding it useful for their students to learn yoga daily and are putting in efforts to try and inculcate it as a part of their educational curriculum. Research has shown that yoga has been quite effective in reducing the stress levels of the kids, has helped them to focus their attention on one aspect at one time, and has improvised their memory retention levels to store more information in their brain.

Yoga teaches children to be responsible for their own conduct, helps them to deal with difficult situations by focusing on the positive aspects of their lives. Yoga helps to draw to oneself all the positive energy that is required by human beings to keep him going on and on in life.